duncan228
12-04-2009, 12:05 AM
Post Game Quotes (http://www.nba.com/spurs/gameday/091203.html)
Spurs Head Coach Gregg Popovich
On the game - “It’s a 48 minute game and you have to play all 48 especially against a team like Boston. Tonight we played a quarter and that’s not good enough. We didn’t shoot well, but that’s really irrelevant. The turnovers and missed free throws those sorts of things really hurt us to start the first and the third quarters. I’ll applaud their tenacity for hanging in and continuing to persevere through the game. But like I said it’s a 48 minute game and not a 12 minute game.”
On DeJuan Blair tonight - “He played a fine game. He has a knack for the boards. He’s a basketball player and he did a lot of good things.”
On when asked what he learned about his team tonight - “I learned that they have character. They’re not going to hang their heads. Their going to continue to play hard, but we know full well that we’re making to many mental errors in games. Those errors were really glaring tonight against a team so good.”
DeJuan Blair
On the game - That’s just something that is going to happen. We just have to rebuild from it and our time is going to come if we keep working as a team and getting better every day. We are going to keep making progress and making fewer mistakes – it just happens some time. It’s all about forgetting about this one - we can’t worry about this game because tomorrow we talk about Denver.
On his play tonight - I played against excellent players in Kevin Garnett, Rasheed Wallace, Kendrick Perkins - they are real good players and they play physical. That’s the type of game I like to play. I was just out there, Pop gave me the minutes. Whether I play five minutes or whatever minutes I played tonight it’s all about working hard, hustling, being there for the team and rebounding. I made a couple of plays. It was a good game. I am getting more comfortable every day. My teammates are doing great at helping in situations when I don’t know what to do. I am just listening and asking questions. We are going to fight back from this and try to get a win on Saturday. You aren’t going to win championships in December we are just going to keep working and it’s going to come together, I promise.
Tony Parker
On the game - It’s one of those bad games. Lots of turnovers, missed free throws and we were missing layups. At the same time we were playing good defense to give us a chance to have an opportunity at the end of the game when we cut into the lead. We were playing that bad and still had a chance. It’s going to be hard to beat Boston playing with all of those turnovers.
On the 3-point attempt that was ruled out of bounds - That’s the play we wanted. We were supposed to give it to Manu and he was supposed to attack the basket with Tim setting a back screen for Michael - we executed it great. It was just one of those days.
Celtice Head Coach Doc Rivers
On the game - “They missed some open shots and early on we made some tough shots. I liked the first half. I thought we were attacking off the dribble…getting the ball up the floor and scoring before they could set their defense. I thought that was big because of the cushion it allowed us. They’re good, obviously. They made a run on us. I thought we struggled there in one stretch. We got away from running our stuff. I thought we were ad-libbing a little too much and playing a little too random. Overall I was happy with the win. It was a tough win.”
On the turnovers tonight - “I thought we sagged well. Parker is so difficult. They either drive you to the paint or they post you to the paint. Our thought was just to clog the paint and get our hands on as many balls, get more deflections and close out to the 3-point line.”
On Kevin Garnet’s performance - “He’s playing terrific. Even the shots he missed you thought were going in. He’s working his butt off and getting healthier and healthier. It’s just going to get better.”
On Rajon Rondo’s shooting - “When he steps into his shot, he’s a good shooter. When he thinks about his shot, he’s not and I don’t think anyone is for that matter. At the point guard position the toughest shot to make is the open one because you’re still thinking about passing. You gotta get to a point, and he will, when he’s open he’s going to think, ‘I’m open and this is my shot and I’m taking it.’ I thought that shot he took down the stretch…that was in his mind. He stepped up to take that shot. There was no thinking about passing in that shot. It was a good shot.”
On Kendrick Perkins - “He was terrific. Perkins has been playing as well as anybody on our team all year. Guarding Tim Duncan is a major task and I wouldn’t wish that on anybody. But then having to deal with Tim and [DeJuan] Blair. Blair almost single-handedly turned this game around for them. He beat us on the post. He kept balls alive. Their bench was huge for them tonight. Bonner didn’t make a whole lot of shots, but Bonner had five rebounds where he deflected it and kept it alive. He did other things for them tonight. Going into the game we wanted to take their energy out of the game. We didn’t do that very well. I thought we allowed their second unit to give them energy.”
Kendrick Perkins
On the game - “I think our defense was great. We was talking, we were executing well as we just played some good team ball. Guys made big plays at big times and we came out with the win.”
On 48 minutes - “No, we still haven‘t played for 48 minutes yet as we gave up 20 offensive rebounds as that’s not us. I don‘t feel like that was one of our best but we did a lot of good things during this game.”
On the success of this trip so far - “I think guys are locked in, guys have a great focus right now. Guys came on this road trip to get wins. We‘re 3-0, we have one more to go as we have a tough Oklahoma City team, as we just have to make sure we go out there with the right mindset and just go out there and play hard.”
Rasheed Wallace
On the game - on playing good basketball these last three road games) “We know that it wasn‘t going to be easy to go to opponents houses and get W‘s but we‘re just taking it one game at a time.”
On playing against a well rested team - “We won three but this next game will be the make-or-break of the trip. We have good three wins and it will be a downer to lose against Oklahoma.”
Spurs Head Coach Gregg Popovich
On the game - “It’s a 48 minute game and you have to play all 48 especially against a team like Boston. Tonight we played a quarter and that’s not good enough. We didn’t shoot well, but that’s really irrelevant. The turnovers and missed free throws those sorts of things really hurt us to start the first and the third quarters. I’ll applaud their tenacity for hanging in and continuing to persevere through the game. But like I said it’s a 48 minute game and not a 12 minute game.”
On DeJuan Blair tonight - “He played a fine game. He has a knack for the boards. He’s a basketball player and he did a lot of good things.”
On when asked what he learned about his team tonight - “I learned that they have character. They’re not going to hang their heads. Their going to continue to play hard, but we know full well that we’re making to many mental errors in games. Those errors were really glaring tonight against a team so good.”
DeJuan Blair
On the game - That’s just something that is going to happen. We just have to rebuild from it and our time is going to come if we keep working as a team and getting better every day. We are going to keep making progress and making fewer mistakes – it just happens some time. It’s all about forgetting about this one - we can’t worry about this game because tomorrow we talk about Denver.
On his play tonight - I played against excellent players in Kevin Garnett, Rasheed Wallace, Kendrick Perkins - they are real good players and they play physical. That’s the type of game I like to play. I was just out there, Pop gave me the minutes. Whether I play five minutes or whatever minutes I played tonight it’s all about working hard, hustling, being there for the team and rebounding. I made a couple of plays. It was a good game. I am getting more comfortable every day. My teammates are doing great at helping in situations when I don’t know what to do. I am just listening and asking questions. We are going to fight back from this and try to get a win on Saturday. You aren’t going to win championships in December we are just going to keep working and it’s going to come together, I promise.
Tony Parker
On the game - It’s one of those bad games. Lots of turnovers, missed free throws and we were missing layups. At the same time we were playing good defense to give us a chance to have an opportunity at the end of the game when we cut into the lead. We were playing that bad and still had a chance. It’s going to be hard to beat Boston playing with all of those turnovers.
On the 3-point attempt that was ruled out of bounds - That’s the play we wanted. We were supposed to give it to Manu and he was supposed to attack the basket with Tim setting a back screen for Michael - we executed it great. It was just one of those days.
Celtice Head Coach Doc Rivers
On the game - “They missed some open shots and early on we made some tough shots. I liked the first half. I thought we were attacking off the dribble…getting the ball up the floor and scoring before they could set their defense. I thought that was big because of the cushion it allowed us. They’re good, obviously. They made a run on us. I thought we struggled there in one stretch. We got away from running our stuff. I thought we were ad-libbing a little too much and playing a little too random. Overall I was happy with the win. It was a tough win.”
On the turnovers tonight - “I thought we sagged well. Parker is so difficult. They either drive you to the paint or they post you to the paint. Our thought was just to clog the paint and get our hands on as many balls, get more deflections and close out to the 3-point line.”
On Kevin Garnet’s performance - “He’s playing terrific. Even the shots he missed you thought were going in. He’s working his butt off and getting healthier and healthier. It’s just going to get better.”
On Rajon Rondo’s shooting - “When he steps into his shot, he’s a good shooter. When he thinks about his shot, he’s not and I don’t think anyone is for that matter. At the point guard position the toughest shot to make is the open one because you’re still thinking about passing. You gotta get to a point, and he will, when he’s open he’s going to think, ‘I’m open and this is my shot and I’m taking it.’ I thought that shot he took down the stretch…that was in his mind. He stepped up to take that shot. There was no thinking about passing in that shot. It was a good shot.”
On Kendrick Perkins - “He was terrific. Perkins has been playing as well as anybody on our team all year. Guarding Tim Duncan is a major task and I wouldn’t wish that on anybody. But then having to deal with Tim and [DeJuan] Blair. Blair almost single-handedly turned this game around for them. He beat us on the post. He kept balls alive. Their bench was huge for them tonight. Bonner didn’t make a whole lot of shots, but Bonner had five rebounds where he deflected it and kept it alive. He did other things for them tonight. Going into the game we wanted to take their energy out of the game. We didn’t do that very well. I thought we allowed their second unit to give them energy.”
Kendrick Perkins
On the game - “I think our defense was great. We was talking, we were executing well as we just played some good team ball. Guys made big plays at big times and we came out with the win.”
On 48 minutes - “No, we still haven‘t played for 48 minutes yet as we gave up 20 offensive rebounds as that’s not us. I don‘t feel like that was one of our best but we did a lot of good things during this game.”
On the success of this trip so far - “I think guys are locked in, guys have a great focus right now. Guys came on this road trip to get wins. We‘re 3-0, we have one more to go as we have a tough Oklahoma City team, as we just have to make sure we go out there with the right mindset and just go out there and play hard.”
Rasheed Wallace
On the game - on playing good basketball these last three road games) “We know that it wasn‘t going to be easy to go to opponents houses and get W‘s but we‘re just taking it one game at a time.”
On playing against a well rested team - “We won three but this next game will be the make-or-break of the trip. We have good three wins and it will be a downer to lose against Oklahoma.”